Maria of the Astral Clocktower
by Macro And Micro
Summary: It feels almost surreal, dreamlike her mind focused only on escaping.. but, there is no hope here, no salvation. Even as she runs she knows that she too must eventually succumb to the dark tendrils that grip her mind pulling her back. Will there be salvation. can she find a way of escaping the nightmare she's stumbled into?
_Okay here's a short project that took a few hours to complete. I got it done in one sitting and I finished at 1 am. I feel proud!_

 _A huge thanks to my friend_ Maya Annwyn _who took time to beta and edit this for me. Hope you all enjoy. May you find your worth in the waking world goof Hunter._

She's running.. through narrow hospital halls and down narrow corridors, her path bends and twists but she never stops. In this moment it is all she knows, sometimes she sees them.. poor wretched creatures out of the corner of her eyes and they spur her on even as her breath burns her lungs and her heart pounds. It feels almost surreal, dreamlike her mind focused only on escaping.. but, there is no hope here, no salvation. Even as she runs she knows that she too must eventually succumb to the dark tendrils that grip her mind pulling her back.

Then without warning…. there is nothing.

As she awakes she shakes the dream away, finding herself lying next to an alter. Everything is different even if she is not sure why yet she knows that she doesn't belong here.

The first thing she noticed were her clothes, they were old as if she was in some form of Victorian, medieval era, there was a hat and mask like scarf that she was grateful for as the smell around her was unbelievably bad. There was a door in front of her and now suddenly she had a choice, leave through it into the unknown, or stay in this room with no exit. After some deliberation she made her mind up and exited through the door. As she went beyond it, she peered through the darkness to see a large spiral staircase looming above her. At it's base skull lanterns flickered and stood guard, seemingly grinning at her misfortune. She didn't want to head back, there was nothing in the room behind for her so with great unease she pressed forwards. Strange horrid creatures screamed at her and the sound sent dark shivers trailing down her spin, wide eyed she was forced to back away from clawing hands. Some of the creatures begged, but most of them just screamed mindlessly. She saw an object glinting in the dirt beneath her feet and she used the toe of her boot to brush some of the dirt aside revealing a long knife that was only somewhat worn. She shook as she picked it up but was too afraid to go on without it. As she made her way up the stairs she managed somehow to dodge most of the creatures. There were others though that she was forced to fight, driving the knife into their neck or bloated head. She told herself that these weren't real creatures that she must be trapped in some kind of dream… she screeched as they died.

Once the creatures were dead the girl was able to get a good look at the things. They were humanoid in appearance with elongated limbs and giant sacks of flesh for head' only coverings they had were dirty, ragged hospital gowns.

There were bottles on shelves and broken things and papers littered the ground along with corpses of no doubt previous occupants oh this place. There was one of the creatures that knelt at the top of a balcony. The most disconcerting thing was that it spoke with a woman's voice leaving her to assume that it was once a human.

"Oh lady Maria, save me please… I don't hear anything." It muttered and cried. The girl slowly and quietly crept past it, not disturbing it.

Finally, she found a lever in an empty room that was available to pull, it called down an elevator but she decided against going on it and instead looked around the room for any alternative ways not wanting to be confined to a small box. There was a set of stairs on one side and a ladder downwards into the void, she decided to try the stairs on the other side of the room. The experiments that were tied to the table's in the room did not escape her notice, especially as the smell hit her like a tonne of bricks. There were two more creatures down the stairs that walked on all fours like dogs despite having more human limbs. She stayed well back and watched their movements and planned to move when their backs were turned. She was successful in avoiding their detection and able to slip past them and into another area through an old creaky door.

More stairs up into the unknown awaited and more creatures in tight quarters, but she did find that the creatures only attacked her if she moved quickly or made a lot of noise. So with careful planning she was able to sneak past them all without hassle. She was afraid that the hammering if her heart would give her away to the creatures.

Once at the top she found not the lanky humanoid creatures she was accustomed to, but rather some giant rats, horrible half dead things that were each the size of a Shetland pony. She wanted nothing to do with them and as slowly as she could she backtracked down the stairs and went the ladder back to the elevator room and out to the first area with the stairs upwards. She went down the creaky stairs and found an alternate path upwards from there. A sign outside a large room read 'Patient Room Floor 2'.

Inside were more of the bloated head people wandering around with no purpose, just slowly hobbling forward muttering to themselves. The girl accidently knocked a bottle under her boots that sent it rolling and clanking forward and all the creatures turned to the noise and by extension her. With her heart hammering in her chest and breath coming quick, her fear was nearly palpable, but the creatures did nothing but stare in the direction of the noise and soon looked away allowing her passage up the stone steps behind them.

Another ladder awaited in this room going upwards to a large open room with the same bloated head creature this time armed with a IV hanger as a weapon that it smashed on the ground in frustration and attacked and swung at an imaginary enemy. Fortunately, it was no threat to her so long as she didn't get in its line of attack, she left it be and wandered forward to the next area. This was the third floor by her count and the sound of manic laughter and gunfire could be heard from above, that was not going to be fun the girl thought. So she went down a ladder she found in the room with the iv hanger creature.

This time there was another talking coherent creature that was begging anyone to kill it and end its suffering as it spasmed in pain on a hospital bed. It was a male voice and it wasn't the only one in the room convulsing in pain. They were all calling for 'Lady Maria.' The girl felt so bad for these creatures but was unable to help them in any way since she didn't want to kill and with a heavy heart, she left them and went forward once more. She had to be going in circles, there was no other explanation of how she went around and back into the same rooms again and again. She went back up the ladder and back to the third floor with the maniac and the gun. Only way forward was up now. Gathering her courage and taking a deep breath she ascended the stairs. The creatures were also walking up them in a single file.

She came to a plaque that read 'Floor 5' and she found the machine toting insane person in a wheelchair shooting at the creatures. He was too far gone in his insanity to even notice her and he had long run out of bullets now too. Upward again for her and another encounter with a bloated head with an IV hanger as a weapon. Only this time it wanted her dead. The girl ducked down from the high backhand swing and lunged forward digging the knife into its neck with both hands. It cried loudly as it died and fell backwards. The girl couldn't stop trembling as she took the knife out of its neck red blood splattered on her clothes and hands, looking behind the corpse was another ladder. She was getting pretty sick of these and this entire place.

But after climbing it, she was on the very top floor with the roof just above her and the only way to move onwards was having to negotiate the thin walkways overhanging a long drop down, to the other side. With more half rotting giant rats and now giant mutated crows awaiting her she began to feel that there was there no end to this place. In the centre of the walkaways was a circular lever that when pushed, brought her up to another upper level with even more thin walkways and talking mutated people (by this point it was more than an assumption that they used to be people) this one was obsessed with the sea and was once again a female voice.

Backtracking a long way, she went into the room with the confining elevator (as it was the only place she hadn't yet explored) and found once it brought her upstairs a large door loomed over her with a sobbing flesh headed creature outside it begging for Lady Maria's forgiveness saying that she had failed. With all her strength the girl pushed open the door just enough to let her through and the strangest sight made her gasp and choke for breath. It was some form or sunflower but it was at least 4 meters in height and was moving as if it was sentient with multiple flowers coming from the one giant pulsating stalk. There were small normal sized flowers surrounding it in a makeshift garden. At least, she was now outside in much fresher air than the hellish hospital before. She found that the sky was so full of mist and fog leaving her unable to make much out. What she did find were more tall buildings like in an old Victorian setting.

But on the other side of the flower was another huge door. She found this one much more difficult to open, but she heard rustling behind her. Turning she saw creatures much like the flesh head's from inside, only these ones were much taller and bigger with huge claws for hands. They rose out of the ground like zombies, four of them in total and hobbled over to her. The girl was unable to contain her fear. She just wanted to go home and away from all this madness.

Her fear helping her strength she pushed the door open with renewed vigour and had just managed to get through the small crack when her arm and back were caught by the long claws of the creatures caught her just before the door shut. She leant against the door and was shaking in fear wherever this place was, it was a nightmare there was no other way to describe this place. The warm blood dripped down her arm and back as she slowly pushed herself away from the door and went into further into the room. To her dismay it was a one-way room. There was a large bell hanging low down from the ceiling and a circular window with no glass in the shape of a clock face behind it. But there was something that filled her with hope as directly underneath the window was a chair. Sitting in it, was a woman.

Not a disfigured woman, she was very pale even from this distance but was unmistakably human with pale ash white hair and a hat obscuring most of her face, she had her legs crossed with her right hand in her lap while the other was hanging off the armrest. The girl as exhausted both emotionally and physically, but somehow found the strength to slowly walk across the broken wooden floor careful to avoid her foot falling through some of the gaps, to the chair. But the closer she got, the stranger things became. The woman's head was down to one side and her hat obscured her eyes.

The girl pulled the mask scarf down and called quietly "Hey, are you alright. I need help." When there was no answer she asked again this time to herself "Please…. Don't be dead."

She was only a few feet from the woman, who was no paler off than the walking corpses that she had just battled her way through. She knelt down and gasped in fright when the woman's silver grey eyes were wide open staring at nothing.

She was dead. There was a wound in the woman's leg, like a bullet wound, and the blood on the floor meant she must have died from blood loss, not long ago if the blood still pretty wet on the floor was any indication.

"Oh god. Please, you can't be dead." The girl whispered. She reached forward to check the woman's neck for a pulse. Nothing.

Tears began to fall from the girl's eyes, after all that, there was no help only a small amount of hope that was taken away again leaving much more then despair in its wake. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. She was trapped in this room with very few options available to her. Stay trapped but safe in the room and die eventually or face imminent death from the walking corpses outside. Even in her fear state, one thing went through her mind. It was disrespectful to leave the woman's eyes open. With trembling fingers she lowered the woman's lids.

Finally, she stood and faced the only way out. She walked across the creaky floor not even watching where she was going or being careful of the wooden boards that were missing and about half way across her legs gave out and she collapsed onto her knees as all hope left her and a black abyss took its place.

"Why…?" she cried quietly, hands on her face as despair took over. "I just want to go home. Please…."

Just as all hope was lost a hand gripped her shoulder. No sound escaped her mouth as her breath caught in her throat. Slowly turning her head, the girl found a gloved hand on her shoulder. Her breath coming in quick panicked pants as she found a way to unblock her throat, she slowly followed the hand and arm up to the face… Of the woman from the chair.

The apparently not so dead woman.

"Do not fear, child." A gentle female voice in a strange accent spoke softly to her. "You have been hurt." She said not in question but in fact, her eyes scanned over the girl and the wounds that were still bleeding.

"You wanted help, did you not?" the woman asked as she held out a hand for the girl to take.

The girl nodded slowly and took the offered hand which very gently pulled her up to a standing position. The woman was much taller than the girl who only came up to about her shoulder.

"You… you were dead. There was no pulse." The girl stammered.

A gentle quiet laughter came from the woman's mouth "You were too fearful child. You wouldn't have been able find a pulse with hands too shaky." The girl was still unable to pinpoint the accent.

"You are not like most that come through here. They all have come to this room and tried to steal from me. What they think is corpse. But you…" The pale woman said to her a smile on her face. "You didn't care to steal, you checked to be sure I was dead. And even showed respect."

"I am lady Maria." She introduced with a respectful one handed bow. "I can get you back home. But it won't be easy child. Nor painless. You will have to trust me."

At the prospect of going back home the girl said loudly "Please anything to get me back home!"

"Kneel, it will make things easier. And be sure to close your eyes and keep them closed. You will not want to see." The girl did as told and knelt on the hard wooden floor and closed her eyes.

She heard the woman's boots walk away from her, stop momentarily, then walk back behind her.

"You know; I've never seen such strange eyes before. A glowing amber." Maria spoke more to herself then the girl. "And it is considered rude to not give your own name when someone had given there's."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The girl said. "My name is, Arya."

"Well Arya. I do hope that you get back home safely." Maria said as a metallic clicking was heard.

Even though she was told to keep her eyes closed, once two sharp pains erupted from her chest, Arya was unable to keep them closed. Looking down, the bloody ends of two blades were sticking out of her chest.

"This is the only way out of this nightmarish dream." Maria said as she pulled the blades out and caught Arya before she fell backwards. "Shh, do not fear. When you awake you will be back home." She cooed to the girl, comforting her as she knelt and held her to her chest.

Arya stared up at the silver eyes of Maria as darkness crept in around her vision, the blood filling her lungs prevented her from screaming and dribbled down the side of her mouth as she died hearing. "Farewell, dear child. May you find your worth in the waking world."

* * *

Arya let out a strangled scream as she sat up in her bed. Her sister, who she shared the large room with, quickly awoke and went to her side.

"Arya what's wrong?" she questioned to her younger sibling.

Once Arya had caught her breath she said "Oh god, Isha you won't believe the dream I just had. Nightmare, really. Someone called Maria in this old Victorian Hospital-" she trailed off as she explained the dream in full from the beginning.

 _And anyone who has read my DarkSouls fic will find a huge easter egg. Not really an easter egg is it. I dont care I designed it this way._


End file.
